Piano-player mechanism.



W. T. WAITE.

PIANO PLAYER MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED AUG, 29, 1612.

1,064,575 Patented June 10, 1913.

INVENTOR 4. WAITE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAI T. VJAITE, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, AS SIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO S. M. HEEL JY AND ONE-THIRD TO A. STEINMETZ, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

PIANO-PLAYER MECHANISM.

nos-mes.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J une 10, 19 1 3.

To call "Le/mm it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM T. WArrn,

- a citizen of the United States, residing at order that Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Piano- Player Mechanism, of which the following is a specification. I

This invention relates to piano-player mechanisms, and has for its object to pro duce a mechanism of such character that but little foot power is required to effect the operation of the pedals, so that a child may easily operate the same irrespective of the character of the music being produced Specifically the object is to provide means for preventing leakage of air through the tracker bar into the vacuum chamber when one or more holes of the former are uncovered by registration therewith of one or more perforations of the note sheet pass ing over the tracker bar.

More specifically, the object is to produce a valve for closing each vent or bleed opening when the associated diaphragm is raised for the purpose of causing another valve to close communication between the atmosphere and a hammer-oper'atin; pneumatic" whereby the collapse of the nieumatic is effected to cause thehammer Lu effect the ,:peratl 0n of the associated key of the piano; hil'lu first-named valve holding said bleed. opening closed until the other valve starts to return the diaphragm to its original or normal position. i

lVith these objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construction and organization as hereinafter described and claimed, and in it may be clearly understood, reference is to be had to the accompahying drawing, in which:

Figure 1. is a top plan view of the vacuum chest and hammer-operating pneumatics of a piano-player mechanism, the said chest being broken away to expose the adjusting screw of a valve whereby the bleed hole of the underlying diaphragm is closed to prevent the passage of air through the tracker bar to the vacuum chamber. Fig.

2, is a horizontal section taken on the line II-II of Fig. 3. Fig. 3, is a vertical section taken on the line III-J11 of Fig. 1. F ig. 4, is an enlarged section of the. diaphragm mken in the same plane as in 3. i

Referring to the drawing, 1 indicates the lower part, and 2 the upper part of the vacuum chest, and 3 is the vacuum chamber thereof, and underlying the vacuum chest is a series of hammer-operating neumatics l, and overlying the vacuum chest is the usual cap-bar 5.

The lower part of the vacuum chest is provided with a series of chambers, each divided by a circular up-standing wall (3, into an outer compartment 7 and an inner compartment 8, and each of said chambers is bridged by the customary flexible diaphragm.9, which normallyirests upon said wall and closes communication between said compartments. Secured centrally upon each diaphragm 9, are superposed disks 10 and 11, of hard and soft material respectively, and said diaphragm and disks. are provided with'registering holes 12, 18 and 14:, communicating with the compartments and constituting a vent or bleed-hole, the holes 12 and 14:, being preferably larger than hole 13, in order that lint, which may be drawn up through said bleed-hole, shall be less liable to clog the same than if the holes in the soft or flexible material were the same size as the hole in the hard disk, it being understood that these disks l0 and 11, are to stiffen the diaphragm at its center for the purposeof positively raising a valve above it, hereinafter identified, and for incidentally preventing noise as the diaphragm strikes and raises the said overlying valve, andjfor closing said bleed-hole in the diaphragm when the same is depressed,

as shown, apin 15 is secured in'the part 1' of the chest and from.

16 is an alr duct connecting each outer projects upwardly there- -compartment 7 with a short metal tube 17,

connected in the usual manner by a flexible tube, not shown, to one of the perforations in the tracker bar, not shown, over which the note sheet travels.

Vertically above the center of each diaphragm 9, is a short tube 18, which projectsinto a chamber 19 in the upper part of the vacuum chest, and chambers 19 are bridged by the cap-bar 5, provided with open flgs 2O establishing communication between chambers 19 and the atmosphere, and secured in openings 20 are tubes 21. The upper part 2 of the vacuum chest is provided with apassageQQ leadingfrom each chamthrough a guide-bar 28 her-19 to a recess 23 in the bottom of said part, and each recess 28 communicates through an opening 24 in the lower part of the vacuum chest, and an opening 25 in the upper part of the pneumatic 4, with the interior of the latter. t

26 are valves located in chamber19 between the adjacent endsof tubes 18 and 21,

and normally resting upon and closing the upper ends of the former, and said valves areprovided with stems 27, dependin versli ingly extending longitudinally of the vacuum chest and secured to the underside of the part 2 thereof, the lower tically through tubes 18 and ends-of said stems 27 terminating just above the disks of the diaphragm, so that the raising' of adiaphrQ-gm shall cause it to instantly engage the overlying stem 27 and raise the valve thereof until it engages the lower end the overlying tube 21. and closes communication between the atmosphere and the chamber 19, the raising of said valve incidentally opening communication between said chamber; 19 and the vacuum chamber 3 and consequently between the latter and the associated pneu matic 4, whereby the collapse of the latter is eiiected. p

As thus far'described, the construction is identical in all essentials with the pianoplayer mechanism upon which U. S. Letters Patent No, 1028163, was issued 'to' me as inventor, and S. M. Henley of Kansas City, Missouri, as assignee of one-half interest, on June l, 1912, which construction, like all piano-player mechanisms, as far as l am aware, is objectionable because when a particular diaphragm is elevated, there is a constant flow of air through the connected tracker bar opening and the bleed-hole of the said diaphragm, into the vacuum cham-- her, which flow of air through a number of the tracker bar perforations at the same time, as is commonly the case, makes it more difiicult to maintain the vacuum in chamber 3 and increases the lrbor of operating the pedals to an appreciable degree.

,\s hercinbefore stated the-chief object of this invention is to guard against this flow oi air into the vacuum chamber for the purpose of enal'iling the operator to manipulate the pedals with greater ease and facility,

and in accomplishing this purpose, I an range in the vacuum chamber 3, a series of valves 99, one vertically above the bleedopening of each diaphragm, each of these bleed-opening controlling valves, being so positioned that the underlying diaphragm will engage it immediately after striking the of the contiguous valve 26. Any

suitable means may be employed for sup porting each valvev 29, my preferred means being a vertically-arrangcd screw 30 adjustable inv he part 33 ot the vacuum chest,

and proiecting npward into achamber 19, where it is inaccessible when the cap-bar 5 'isin place. I

Assuming that theparts of the mechanism are in the-positions shown in Fig. 3, and that a perforation of'the note sheet registers with'the opening in the tracker bar in communicationwith the outer compartment 7, it"will be apparent that" the pull of the vacuum-in chamber 3, will instantly raise the diaphragm, and produce thecollapse of the pneumatic 4: in the customary manner, by causing vaive'26 to close communication between the atmosphere and chamber 19. As the diaphragm moves upward, it, opens communication between compartments 7 and 8 to permitthe air entering the tracker bar to vent up through the bleed-opening into the vacuum chamber 3 as common in this class er mechanism, and as explained particularly in my aforesaid patent. This v'entingiaction is arrested as thevalve 26 closes communication between the atmosphere and chamber 19, by the engagement of'the diaphragm with valve 29, and the diaphragm remains; ele ated and with its bleed-opening closed by valve 29,-' until the note'gsheetdn its travel, closes the tracker bar opening. As this-occurs, atmospheric pressure on valve 26 depresses the same and thereby ,eifects the reestablishment of communication between the atmosphere and the pneumatic to reexpand the latter, and at the same time closes communication between the pneumatic and the vacuum chamber, it being noted that in the descent of the valve, its stem engages and, depresses the underlying diaphragm and that before the diaphragm is fully depressed the pull of the vacuum in chamber 3, efiects the venting of the air confined-or pocketed between the closed tracker bar opening and the diaphragm, up through the bleed-openin of the latter, the said opening being closed by the pin'15 as the diaphragm engages wall 6 and therebycloses communication between compartments 7 and 8. It will thus be seen that during the major portion ofthe period while a note sheet opening remains in communication with the tracker bar opening, communication between the vacuumrchamher and the tracker bar opening is closed, and that consequently there is no flow of air into the vacuum chamber to make the operation of the pedals pnnecessarily laborious.

From the above description, it will be apparent that I have produced a pianoplayer mechanism embodying-the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the statement of the object of the invention and which may be changed intminor particulars without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention as defined in the appended claims. 

